Headlines from China: Beijing International Film Festival Announces Partial Lineup

The 8th Beijing International Film Festival just announced the first batch of films to be screened this year at the festival. Award season favorites, such as Get Out, Call Me By Your Name, and The Disaster Artist, appeared on the list. This year’s special programs pay tribute to women filmmakers as well as several acclaimed directors including Ingmar Bergman, Wong Kar-wai, Wes Anderson and Pedro Almodovar. Read more on Mtime

Oscar-winning fantasy drama film The Shape of Water successfully passes Chinese censorship without reducing the length of the film, which makes many wonder how this R-rated film made it. In this article, the author analyzes how certain images in Blade Runner 2049 and Logan were cropped or photoshopped instead of being deleted when these two films were released in China, and went on to speculate that it’s very likely The Shape of Water employed similar strategies. Read more on Entertainment Capital

New Rules are Announced to Regulate On-demand Theaters in China

China’s media regulator recently announced new policies to regulate the country’s on-demand movie theaters. The new rules, which will take effect on March 30, aim to prevent illegal business practices, such as copyright infringement and box office fraud. According the new rules, on-demand theaters can only screen films that have obtained permit for theatrical release; on-demand theaters are required to submit box office data to a national database. In addition, release date and duration will also be regulated. Read more on entgroup.cn

As the Chinese film market grows rapidly in recent years, how to cultivate a new generation of filmmakers concerns many in the industry. Recently, Beijing Business Today took a look at the directors whose films made over 1 billion yuan ($15.8 million) at the box office in 2017. Among the 56 filmmakers in the “2017 One Billion Club,” 14 were born after 1980. Sadly, only one of them is female. In addition, about half of them didn’t go to film school and most of their films are comedies. Read more on Beijing Business Today

China Film Insider reports on and writes about the people and companies making movies that soon may help to bridge the gaps in understanding between China, the United States, and the rest of the world. We work in Beijing, Los Angeles, and New York.